LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - A little more than a week after NASA announced it would drastically scale back the budget for its Mars exploration programs, the agency's administrator made a stop at Jet Propulsion Laboratory - the facility that may be most affected by the cuts.

NASA's 2013 budget, which was released Feb. 13, includes $226 million in cuts to the Mars exploration programs. JPL's portion of the cuts amounts to roughly $120 million - about 10 percent of the facility's budget.

Those cuts forced the scuttling of two joint U.S.-Europe missions scheduled for launch in 2016 and 2018.

The cuts to those missions are largely due to NASA's desire to continue funding the enormous James Webb Space Telescope, even while maintaining an overall flat budget for next year.

JPL officials have said that without the joint Mars missions in the pipeline, a few hundred JPL scientists and engineers could find themselves without work in the next few years.

In spite of that dire prediction, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden seemed to receive a warm and friendly welcome from JPL staffers during his visit to the facility on Wednesday, though he revealed little about NASA's future strategies for Mars exploration.

While Bolden's visit could have been construed as a morale booster, JPL spokeswoman Veronica McGregor said it's traditional for the NASA administrator to visit all the agency's sites following a budget announcement.

"He's going to all of the NASA centers right now," she said.

McGregor said Bolden spent the morning discussing the budget with JPL administrators, followed by a short question-and-answer session with a group of John Muir High students who happened to be touring the facility.

Later in the day, Bolden visited Mission Control, where about three dozen scientists and engineers were practicing for the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory, NASA's largest rover yet, later this year.

Bolden told the Mission Control staff that their mission will be "difficult" and thanked them for their efforts so far.

"I'm also here to implore you to stay focused," Bolden said. "I think many people are starting to understand how hard this is."

His comments were met with applause from the room.

Bolden, however, was elusive on issues regarding the proposed cuts to the Mars program. He said NASA is still "trying to figure out" how to replace the now-scuttled Mars missions and is considering some "restructuring" of its robotic Mars exploration.

Bolden said if programs at JPL can be reconfigured, potential impacts there might be "minimal."

"We don't think there's going to be any harm done to the workforce here during this fiscal year," he said.

Bolden declined to be more specific when speaking about the future beyond that, saying only that NASA would develop a "viable, affordable program."

And he said not much was certain about the joint U.S.-Europe missions, even before they were canceled.

"I'm not sure that anybody can tell you what was going to be in the 2018 program," he said.

JPL director Charles Elachi said staffing levels at JPL will not be affected during the next nine months, and he said there's still some potential for joint missions with Europe.